TCA Statement on U.S. Officials' Statements on Kurds and Turkey

The Turkish Coalition of America (TCA) is deeply concerned by statements by U.S. government officials irresponsibly employing offensive language such as “ensuring that Turks don’t slaughter Kurds,” following U.S. President Trump’s announcement that the withdrawal of all 2000 U.S. troops from Syria will be coordinated with Turkey.

Any expression of generic anti-Kurdish hostility by the government of Turkey or the people of Turkey is provocative and uninformed.

Over 10 million of Turkey’s 80 million citizens are of Kurdish ethnicity. Turks of Kurdish ethnicity are closely integrated into Turkey’s government, business and industry and have attained the highest positions in each of these fields with great contributions. In addition Turkey maintains positive relations and close economic cooperation with the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), having established formal relations with Erbil 2010.

The tens of millions of peaceable ethnic Kurds worldwide can surely be distinguished from The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is an armed, Marxist-Leninist terrorist organization, listed as such by the United States and the European Union. Not all Syrian Kurds support the PKK-linked People’s Protection Units (YPG). That is why Turkey has steadfastly opposed the misguided U.S. decision to support, train, and arm YPG forces from the very beginning.

Turkey is concerned that the YPG and its political arm, PYD, are involved in ethnic cleansing of rival political and ethnic groups in Syria while capitalizing on the ISIS threat, as documented by Amnesty International. Also according to the Syrian Kurdish National Council (ENKS), which consists of more than 10 Kurdish political parties, the YPG regularly commits human rights violations and discrimination against Kurds and Arabs that do not share their ideology.[i] The Supreme Assembly for Syrian Tribes, which consists of Arab, Kurdish, Turkmen, and Assyrian tribal representatives, has joined forces against the YPG.[ii] Neither the ENKS nor the KDP, which is the ruling party of the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government, recognize YPG or the PYD as legitimate political entities. Most Arab tribes also oppose the YPG due to their ethnic displacement policies and property confiscation.[iii]

Turkey currently hosts approximately 3.5 million Syrian refugees, consisting of Arabs, Turkmens, and ethnic Kurds some of whom have been forced out of their homes by the YPG. Throughout the Syrian civil war, thousands of Syrian Kurds have fled to Turkey to escape the atrocities of ISIS, as documented by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR.)[iv]

TCA welcomes the cautious efforts on both sides to coordinate military planning in the fight against ISIS. However, the US and Turkey must work towards a comprehensive strategic framework for a democratic transition that would end the war and defeat ISIS in Syria. Washington should take the necessary steps to respond to its NATO ally’s reasonable and obvious national security concerns. Ankara should take into consideration how the U.S. political system functions. Cooperation in Syria based on common security interests can play a constructive and definitive role in eliminating ISIS and in strengthening the vital U.S.-Turkey relationship.